Scalpel



Oct. 20, 1953 w. E. STEELE 2,655,723

SCALPEL Filed Jan. 8, 1949 INVENTOR. WILLIAM E STEELE form resides in the Patented Oct. 20, 1953 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE SCALPEL William E. Steele, Seattle, Wash. Application January 8, 1949, Serial No. 69,865 8 Claims. (01. 30-339) This invention relates to improved scalpels of the detachable blade type similar in general respects to that disclosed in my United States Letters Patent No. 2,454,353, issued November 23, 1948. Present improvement features reside both in the scalpel as a whole and in the novel blade as an element thereof, as embodied in representative forms of the invention hereinafter described.

In the form of scalpel disclosed in my patent cited above, the detachable blade is carried by a tang or tongue projecting beyond one end of the handle. On the tongue is a headed pin passing through an aperture in the blade, and cooperating with the pin and aperture in securing the blade to the handle is a socket in the handle at the root of the tongue in which the butt of the blade fits. The blade is thus held against movement both lengthwise and transversely of the handle, and. from swinging. In addition, the blade supporting surface of the tongue at its root end is curved conoavely to elevate the surface of that portion of the tongue in the socket above the general level of such tongue surface. The butt end of the blade in the socket resting on such elevated portion of the tongues surface is deflected to bend the blade whose central portion is held down by the pins head. By thus being bent, the blade is stressed so that, being made of spring steel, its resilience will hold the central portion of the blade firmly against the underside of the retaining head of the pin to eliminate all play or looseness between the blade and handle tongue.

In the present scalpel construction the scalpel blade again is carried by a handle tang, and secured to it by a headed pin on the tang passing through an aperture in the blade and by a socket in the handle receiving the butt end or the blade. Also, the blade is stressed by being held in bent position, to prevent play between the blade and the handle, but the structure utilized to maintain the blade thus stressed differs from that disclosed in my aforesaid patent.

The general object is to provide a scalpel in which the blade may be attached and detached with greater convenience, and especially readily by tweezers, or the like, under surgical operating conditions. It is a further object to provide a blade which is more easily handled under all conditions, and especially one which may be picked up easily from a flat supporting surface where a flat blade is normally difficult to grip.

A particular feature of the improved blade detachable scapel blade having in the vicinity of its butt end a laterally projecting portion which extends transversely of the illustrated, such offset at the butt end of the blade is bilateral in form so that the blade will be reversible on the handle, although blades having a projection on only one side may be used if desired.

Such a projection on the butt end of a blade will raise the blade so that it will not lie in contiguous contact with a flat supporting surface, nor will there be any tendency for such blade to adhere to the surface as perfectly flat blades sometimes do. Thus, while the usual flat blade lies close to a surface on which it rests, making it diflicult to grasp, with the present type blade, tweezers or some other instrument may be slipped readily beneath the blade to grip it, or it may even be grasped readily in the fingers.

In surgery, when it is desired to exchange quickly one scalpel blade for another and the same handle is to be used, it is an easy matter to insert one prong of tweezers between the blade and the underlying surface of the handle tongue spaced from it, and thus to grasp and detach the blade from the handle and then quickly install another on it without contaminating either the blade or the handle.

These and other features, objects and advan- V tages of the invention will become more fully eviv scalpel, indicating by handle dent from the following description of its illustrative forms shown in the accompanying drawmgs.

Figure 1 is a side view of my improved form of solid lines the position of the blade in the initial step of attaching it to the handle, and by broken lines its attached position thereon.

Figure 2 is a fragmentary edge View of the scalpel taken partly in section to illustrate the cooperative relationship of the handle and one improved form of scalpel blade mounted thereon.

Figure 3 is a fragmentary edge view corresponding to Figure 2 but Without parts being broken away.

Figure 4 is a fragmentary side view of the scalpel corresponding to Figure 1 but on an enlarged scale.

Figure 5 is a top perspective view of the bladecarrying tang of the handle, and the adjacent portion.

Figure 6 is an enlarged fragmentary edge view of the scalpel shown partly in section to illustrate the form and relation of the blade butt to the handle socket.

Figure 7 is a fragmentary longitudinal sectional view of a scalpel incorporating a blade of modified form.

The handle IQ of the improved detachable blade scalpel may in general respects resemble that disclosed in my above-cited Patent No. 2,454,353, except that the face I2 of the blademounting tongue I 4 adjacent to the blade 20 here is preferably a planar surface. On the contrary, in the form of my patent the corresponding surface rises gradually, and progressively steeper, from the location of blade-securingpin it toward the end wall I8 of thehandle socket H for the blade, thus forming a concave surface.

As in the patent, blade-securing pin it has a generally rectangular head elongated transversely of the tongue, the under side of which is spaced from the tongue surface I2 by an amount slightly exceeding the thickness of blade 20, so that the blade be swung beneath it easily about the pin IS. The pin is located generally mid-way between socket end wall i8 and the tip of the tongue, but preferably somewhat nearer the latter.

Blade 20 has in it a. rectangular aperture 22 elongated longitudinally of it, as shown in Figure 4, and of a sizeto fit easily .over the head of pin I6 when the blade is positioned at right angles to the tongue, as shown by solid lines in Figure 1. The length of blade between its butt end and the nearer side of aperture 22 approximately equals the distance between socket end wall It! and the nearer side of pin 16, so that when the lade is swung edgewise about the pin from its solid line position to its broken line position in Figure 1 it will bridge between such pin side and socket end wall to fit snugly therebetween.

When thus swung into alignment with the handle, the blades butt end is received between the opposite side walls or shoulders 26 of the handle socket 11. These shoulders are spaced apart transversely of the handle by an amount just sufiicient to receive'the butt end of the blade snugly between them. Consequently, when the blade butt is lodged in socket I! it is restrained positively against swinging about the axis of pin 16. The outer sides2l of shoulders 26 are preferably chamfered or bevelled, as indicated in Figure 5, to provide convenient guiding surfaces for deflecting the butt end of the blade upwardly and over such shoulders as it is swung about pin I6 into alignment with the handle to drop into the socket ll.

As shown in Figure 2, an important feature resides in the thickening of the butt of blade 20 or formation of opposed projections or ribs 24 and 25 at the butt of the blade, constituting bulbous bearing means. Each 'rib or projection 24 and 25 of this bulb formation extends transversely of the blade along its butt edge, as shown in Figure 4, when the blade is secured beneath the head of pin it and its butt end is swung into registry with socket H. The laterally projecting extremity of one such rib 25, bearing against the surface l2 of tang I4 in socket l'l, deflects the blade butt outwardly under stress, pressing its central portion firmly against the underside of the head on pin l6, as shown. In addition to the lock obtained by use of the pin and socket, the resilient force in the spring blade sets up triotional holding forces against pin, socket and tongue to eliminate all play or looseness between the blade and handle. The surgeon is thereby assured of an integrated surgical instrument which can be used with confidence that the blade will not shift on the handle or come off under any operating stress or condition.

It is to be noted that the bilateral bulbous formation, composed of the opposed projections 24 and 25, which arelthe same on both sides of the blade, enables the blade to be attached reversibly to the handle with either of its sides adjacent to surface II of the handle tongue [4. However, blades may be provided with a projection on'only-one side where desired.

A further detail is shown in Figure 6, wherein the projections 24 and 25 forming the bulbous butt end of blade 20 are beveled or chamfered slightly to define surfaces meeting at an obtuse angle substantially at the median plane of the blade, the angle being such that the beveled or chamfered surface of the projection bearing on the tongue surface I 2 engages substantially contiguously the socket end wall i8 instead of only in line contact.

As shown in Figure 3, the blade 20, when mounted normally on the handle tang M, has its side adjacent to such tang separated from the tang surface I 2 near the blades butt end to leave a substantial gap 28. It is therefore easy to insert into this gap one prong of tweezers or a similar instrument to raise the blade butt out of the handle socket, to swing it about pin 16, and to lift the blade entirely from the handle. A substitute blade may be attached to the handle by following a reverse procedure. Such operation is facilitated by the bulbous formation of ribs 24 and 25 on the butt end of the blade if the blade is lying on a flat surface, because the central portion of the blade will be spaced above such surface by one or the other of such ribs, so that again a prong of a pair of tweezers may easily be slipped transversely beneath the blade to grasp it, or it may even be gripped readily with fingers. On the contrary, a flat blade lies contiguously against a flat surface and is difficult to grasp fiatwise with tweezers, and virtually impossible to pick up by fingers in rubber gloves.

In Figure 7 a modified blade 29 is illustrated, which has generally the same advantages as the form described as shown 'in Figures 1 to 4 and 6. In this case the butt end 30 of the blade is tapered gradually, instead of being enlarged abruptly, so that when mounted on the handle most of the bending of the stressed blade occurs in the vicinity of the pin l6, rather than being distributed more nearly uniformly between the pin-receiving aperture 22 and the butt end of the blade.

It will be evident that the projections on the blade butt may be of various forms and still be able to accomplish the purposes of the invention, and a projection may be provided on only one, or on both faces of the blade. Moreover, the extent of such projection selected, beyond a side face of the blade may be made large or small depending upon the degree of stress desired in the blade when attached to the handle. Also, it will be evident that the projection need not extend across the full width of the blade, but may extend only part way across it, if desired. The projection may be formed by various methods, such as by forging or bending a flat strip, although for manufacturing convenience it may be produced by rolling or extruding a strip blank with a bead along one edge. The pieces for individual blades will then be cut from such strip transversely of it. The handles may be die cast, forged, or otherwise formed of some inexpensive and preferably lightweight metal, such as aluminum. These and various other modifications following the principles herein set forth will be evident to those skilled in the art.

I claim as my invention:

1. A detachable blade scalpel comprising a generally fiat and elongated blade having a cutting end portion and a butt end, a handle having a tongue projecting lengthwise beyond one end thereof, one face of said tongue being generally planar, blade-retaining means on said tongue spaced a substantial distance from its root and cooperable blade-retaining means on said blade generally intermediate its ends, said two blade-retaining means being releasably interengageable to hold the blade pressed flatly against said generally planar tongue face along the projecting end portion of said tongue beyond said blade-retaining means, and bulbous means increasing the thickness of the butt end of said blade and engageable with said generally planar tongue face at the root portion of said tongue for springing the butt end of the blade outwardly from said tongue face and thereby placing such blade under tension between its butt end and its generally intermediate retaining means engaged with the blade-retaining means on the tongue, said handle further having means thereon cooperating with the butt end of the blade to prevent transverse edgewise movement of such butt end relative to the handle.

2. A detachable blade scalpel comprising a generally flat and elongated blade having a cutting end portion and a butt end, a handle having a tongue projecting lengthwise beyond one end thereof, one face of said tongue being generally planar, blade-retaining means on said tongue spaced a substantial distance from its root and cooperable blade-retaining means on said blade generally intermediate its ends, said two blade-retaining means being releasably interengageable to hold the blade pressed flatly against said generally planar tongue face along the projecting end portion of said tongue beyond said blade-retaining means, and means on the butt end of said blade projecting out of its general body plane and engageable with said generally planar tongue face at the root portion of said tongue for springing the butt end of the blade outwardly from said tongue and thereby placing such blade under tension between its butt end and its generally intermediate retaining means engaged with the blade-retaining mean on the tongue, said handle further having means thereon cooperating with the butt end of the blade to prevent transverse edgewise movement of such butt end relative to the handle.

3. The detachable blade scalpel defined in claim 2, wherein the butt end of the blade terminates in a transversely extending end edge, and wherein the means on the butt end of the blade projecting out of its general body plane comprises two ribs formed along such transverse end edge and projecting oppositely out of the body plane of the blade from opposite sides thereof, either of such ribs being engageable with the tongue face.

4. The detachable blade scalpel defined in claim 3, wherein the handle means cooperable with the butt end of the blade comprises a, socket opening endwise of the handle and sidewise thereof transversely to the generally planar tongue face, such tongue face at the tongues root extending into and forming the bottom of such socket, said socket having blade-retaining opposite sidewalls closely adjacent the respective opposite side edges of the blades butt end received in the socket, and a retaining end wall closely adjacent the transverse end edge of the blades butt end.

5. A scalpel blade detachably mountable on a handle, comprising an elongated, generally fiat strip of metal resiliently bendable lengthwise, having a cutting point at one end of the strip length, bearing means projecting outwardly a substantial distance from one side of said strip beyond the general plane of such strip side and located at the butt end of said strip, opposite the cutting point end thereof, and said strip having an aperture located along its length between said bearing means and said cutting point, engageable by the handle.

6. The scalpel blade defined in claim 5, in which the bearing means is a rib extending transversely of the length of the strip.

7. The scalpel blade defined in claim 6, and a second rib similar to the first-mentioned rib and projecting from the opposite side of the strip at a location remote from the cutting point of the strip and extending transversely of the length of the strip.

8. A scalpel blade reversibly and detachably mountable on a handle, comprising an elongated, generally flat strip of metal resiliently bendable lengthwise, having a cutting point at one end of the strip length, having a thickened butt at the opposite end of the strip length of a thickness substantially greater than the thickness of the blade over the major portion of its length, and having an elongated aperture longer parallel to the length of the blade than transversely of the blade, and disposed generally centrally between said cutting point and said thickened butt.

WILLIAM E. STEELE.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 380,387 Gayler Apr. 3, 1888 1,261,815 Housdorfer Apr. 9, 1918 1,596,277 Langbein Aug. 17, 1926 1,706,712 Sklar Mar. 26, 1929 1,725,047 Behrman Aug. 20, 1929 2,044,222 Nicoll June 16, 1936 

